On Fri, 2010-03-05 at 22:33 +0000, David G.Miller wrote: > <m.roth at ...> writes: > > > > > > m.roth at ... wrote: > > > > > > [...] > > > > > >> Alternatively, the answer on another techie mailing list I'm on is that > > >> you could disassemble the disks and use thermite. > > > > > > Just a hammer, no need to disassemble the case. > > > > > I dunno, a buddy who was in army intel back in the early eighties told me, > > about 10 years ago, that they could flatten out the platters and read some > > data. Thermite not only melts the platters, but will hit the Curie point. > > > > mark "and make nice flames and melting metal" > > > > Over the years I've ended up with a pile of old hard drives. Some are > unreliable; some won't even spin up and some are just REALLY old (e.g., 100s > of MB size). I also inherited a couple of rifles (M-1 Garand and M-1 > Carbine). I'm thinking write /dev/urandom to ones that will spin but then > take the whole lot out in the country for some target practice. It may be > possible to scape a little data off of what's left after the drive gets hit > with a round from the Garand but I doubt if anyone will want to go to the > trouble. It could also be fun. ---- Since most are about 5" x 3-1/2" that makes a perfect MOA target at 1000 yards with 165gr 308. It just goes into pieces of dust. John